I use a program called True Image Home by Acronis. A major advantage is that its backups can also copy and restore the system and program files. Most other backup systems can't do this or mirror a drive.

So in the event of a hard drive or other failure, I can restore the OS and programs easily without having to get out all of those original disks and serial numbers, install and then update them.

True Image does incremental, and differential backups in addition to full backups and can be scheduled and controlled any way you like.

It's only $50 and can save you days of time trying to restore everything if your hard drive crashes.

If your using XP then you can create a script to perform these back ups yourself, the function is called xcopy, it's a built in function that is part of XP, you can specify various switches to set options like copying to a back up only the files that have changed or are new. You can save this script as a batch file and run it anytime you like. Check google for information on using using xcopy, there is a lot of info about using it and it's completely free.

For Wndows based systems, robocopy (included in the Server 2003 Resource Kit) is a very powerfull tool. Like xcopy, it's command line based - however Derk Benisch at MS came up with a nice GUI wrapper.

I use a program called True Image Home by Acronis. A major advantage is that its backups can also copy and restore the system and program files. Most other backup systems can't do this or mirror a drive.

So in the event of a hard drive or other filure, I can restore the OS and programs easily without having to get out all of those original disks and serial numbers, install and then update them.

True Image does incremental, and differentital backups in addition to full backups and can be scheduled and controlled any way you like.

It's only $50 and can save you days of time trying to restore everything if your hard drive crashes.

I like True Image as well and back ups are automatic when I shut down. It also allows you to keep the backup on a partition that cannot be accessed by the operating system. Every week I make an additonal back up onto a second external drive.

I have been using a program from Karen Kenworthy called replicator to copy from hard drives to other computers and external hard drives on a network. It can do incremental copies and can be set to replicate deletions (safest to leave this off most of the time). The program is shareware.

This morning, as it happens, I had a fight with Bridge and lost, wiping out all of 2007 photos from home town Los Angeles (5 gig of photos). Within 2 hours, Mozy had me up and running again.

I use it for all 4 computers, especially now![a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=194973\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I looked at Mozy with some interest - but the "gotcha" for me is that whenever you do a backup, ALL the files (including those previously backed up) must be visible to Mozy, otherwise they are treated as deleted and kept 30 days then deleted from Mozy.

I like this Program best for backup ,for BOTH Mac and PC,it came with my Seagate External Hard drive.I bought the full program and costs 35 or so bucks.Here's the link to the site, try the 30 day trial.Mind you I have never restored from it.THAT is the true test of such a program.Can it BACKUP and RESTORE!

Let us know if you think it works for you![a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=192193\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

You're right. Almost any program can backup effectively (to some degree at least). The problem is when you want to restore the data, will it work.

My advice - Don't move to any new back up system without testing it, regardless of what people say here.

My experience with some inexpensive/free programs has been terrible and was worse than dragging the files back manually. I'd suggest to anyone even considering a new backup program that they should (redundantly) create a back up, (a 1 week trial would be great), and then try a restore. If it doesn't work, you've only lost a weeks worth of time but no files. Don't wait until the last minute when you actually need the files to find out your "solution" doesn't work the way you hoped...

You're right. Almost any program can backup effectively (to some degree at least). The problem is when you want to restore the data, will it work.

My advice - Don't move to any new back up system without testing it, regardless of what people say here.

My experience with some inexpensive/free programs has been terrible and was worse than dragging the files back manually. I'd suggest to anyone even considering a new backup program that they should (redundantly) create a back up, (a 1 week trial would be great), and then try a restore. If it doesn't work, you've only lost a weeks worth of time but no files. Don't wait until the last minute when you actually need the files to find out your "solution" doesn't work the way you hoped...